Mexico: A Truly Equal Country

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Although the 2003 Mexican health care system reform has increased service coverage, affordability and accessibility for the poorest 20% of the population, it has yet to significantly refine and standardize service quality and efficiency, as well as counter epidemiological population changes. The Mexican health care system prior to the 2003 reform, was an unequal, employment based hierarchal system, where the coverage received by citizens depended on whether or not they were part of the formal sector. Throughout the 1940s, health care insurance was available to Mexican citizens, however only the 50% of the population officially employed in the official job sector (public and private). Established in 1943, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), and the Ministry of Health (MOH), crucial factors of the current health system, provide health services to the population. IMSS, although the largest distributor of medical care in Mexico treating 40% of Mexico’s population of roughly 100 million, reserves services exclusively for employees of the private job sector. MOH, on the other hand, offers medical services to the remaining half of the population not covered by government regulated social security. However, due to government decentralization and increased freedom for individual state government health regulations during the 1980s-1990s, low standardization led to inequality and inefficiency in the provision of medical treatment, as well as increased poverty. While providing medical services to to citizens without health insurance, inadequate government funding and deficiencies within the health care system caused widespread destitution, and substandard medical services for the poorer half of the population. While the Ministry of... ... middle of paper ... ...pbs.org/newshour/rundown/mexico-nears-universal-health-care-goal/. Ordoñez Ramírez, Adriana S. E-mail interview by Tara Kohli. Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico. February 24, 2014. (Ordoñez Ramírez is a doctor, and the wife of a doctor as well.) Vance, Erik. "Mexico Chalks up Success in Health-Care Reforms." Nature. Accessed January 30, 2014. doi:10.1038/nature.2012.11222. World Bank. 2008. Providing Subsidized Health Insurance to the Poor. Reaching the Poor with Health Services Mexico. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/01/9455844/providing-subsidized-health-insurance-poor Whyte, Sheila. Sheila Whyte to CBC News newsgroup, "How Mexico's Health System Works," May 4, 2009. Accessed January 30, 2014. http://www.cbc.ca/news/ technology/how-mexico-s-health-system-works-1.777348.

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